Ahead of today’s Budget, John Eastgate, Managing Director of Property Finance at Shawbrook Bank, shares three things he’d like to see from the Chancellor this afternoon
Rethinking the planning process:
“After being promised the biggest shake up to the property market for a generation, expected changes to the planning process have since been scrapped leaving the door open for a revised approach from the new Housing Minister.
“It’s nothing new to say that the UK has a chronic lack of housing, the government must make it easier for smaller developers, and individuals, to build on viable land in order to meet current demands.
“A crucial part of this, and what we need to see from the Chancellor, is a commitment to supporting the long overdue changes to the planning process.
“The property market can have a key role to play in the government’s levelling up agenda, but only if it’s given the right tools to do so.”
Establish new green incentives:
“Many landlords or property investors will be aware of recent changes to the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) legislation which means that all properties must reach a rating of ‘C’ or above in order to be let by 2025.
“While this is an admirable ambition, there has been a lack of guidance on how this can be achieved in practice.
“While new houses can be built with these regulations in mind, the reality is that a large amount of our current housing stock is over a century old, improving energy efficiency isn’t a quick fix.
“The recent announcement that homeowners will be given a £5,000 grant to replace their boiler with an air source heat pump is one example of how the government is taking green steps, but many have questioned whether the resource is in place to actually support the rollout.
“To fully support landlords, investors and homeowners the government must establish a new fit for purpose set of green incentives that encourage people to transition to more sustainable and energy efficient ways of heating their home or making improvements to a property, with practical guidance on how it will be achieved.”
Cuts to Inheritance Tax for downsizers:
“Although the government haven’t outwardly raised the inheritance tax (IHT) threshold in recent years, the rapid growth in house prices has left more homeowners at risk of breaching the £325,000 tax-free allowance when they pass on their estate. Introducing a cut to inheritance tax for those looking to downsize would help the property market twofold.
“As well as incentivising large homeowners to move into more manageable properties, freeing up bigger family homes across the market to help younger generations, it would also allow families to hold on to more of their accrued wealth and pass on to loved ones, so they too can build a deposit to buy their own home.”
With so much of the probably content of the Budget already having been trailed in the media, EYE does not expect the Chancellor to announce much of spectacular interest to the residential housing market but we will of course issue a News Update if appropriate. Otherwise we shall bring you the relevant Budget highlights in tomorrow’s edition.
Not so many comments, is it the lack of being anonymous? or grappling with the tech? Both telling in their own way.
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Have you really just suggested the Eye readership can’t cope with entering a mobile phone number into a little box?
Perhaps you didn’t mean for it to read that way but that’s how I’ve read it.
The lack of comments is probably more to do with it being a vanilla day
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Robert has got the measure of it, it’s a slow news day.
Whether people can enter a telephone number, or whether they want to enter their number, are two different questions. As you can see, I don’t have an issue with it.
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It is probably a good illustration of adoption of technology. RM & AAA take the time to ‘clock in’ to the new way of commenting, the barrier, having to take the time and effort to register a mobile number. Result, those who most need to comment daily RM & AAA are early adopters, those who do not feel the need delay, some may never adopt.
Interesting thought though, ‘it was how I read it? ‘ – interpretation of the written word is of course all to do with a person and how their mind works and what expereinces they have had.
As to slow news day – maybe a slow news day for Press Releases being sent out as half term for some, but plenty of real news out there, the problem journalists and reporters have been replaced by the marketing department, as revenue is now key as no-one reads a printed newspaper (in volume) – think London Evening Standard losing half their journalists not so long ago.
Journalist scribble news, but most publications run Press Releases, sanatised and not as gripping, but in the age of ‘moving pictures’ – silent movies or ‘word stories’ will increasingly lose out to the wants of the new generations of news consumers. Hence why the social media platforms are still exploding. Trump has said a lot of words, but ‘Fake News’ is probably an ironic truth at last.
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